Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
Clearly defined mission and vision statements can be powerful for people and businesses. They can help provide focus and inspiration as well as provide another point of reference when making decisions.
A mission statement is centered on what you set out to do, and a vision statement is focused on the end result. It is a picture of how the landscape will look after you’ve been through it – your ideal.
At Communiqué PR, we recently took the time to develop a formal mission and vision statement. Our process involved the following:
- Taking a close look and doing significant thinking about who we are, what we are trying to accomplish, and what we can become.
- Examining the branding work we did in partnership with GKD several years ago in-conjunction with the development of Communiqué PR’s website.
- Reflecting on the input from various staff members.
- Reviewing other company’s and leaders’ mission and vision statements.
Finally, as we drafted and refined these statements, we paid close attention to semantics, and weighed the pros and cons of various word choices in expressing our mission and vision, and considered the interests of the target audience (staff, freelancers, customers and partners). Our goal was to ensure our statements were not only accurate and credible, but also affirming and motivating.
The results of our work were the following mission and vision statements:
- Our mission is to help clients move product, sell services and grow brands through high-quality strategic communications programs.
- Our vision is to be the best Seattle-based strategic communications company, expert at delivering value and results that make the world a better place for people and businesses alike.
We want to draw attention to the words “best” and “better place.” We want to be recognized as the best for our people, processes, results, reputation and clients. We also want to work with companies who are striving to bring good things to life for the betterment of people or other businesses.
We recognize that our mission and vision statements will grow and change as Communiqué PR evolves. Nonetheless, we believe having a defined mission and vision statement will have major impact on our operations and ability to achieve our short- and long-term business objectives.
If your organization does not have a defined mission and vision, I would encourage you to establish them. They are powerful tools that can help a company make consistent decisions, build unity and enhance communication. Furthermore, we each play a role in creating the future so it’s critical that we, as a company and as individuals, get as clear as possible about what we are trying to achieve.
Jennifer Gehrt & Team
According to Wikipedia, a word cloud is defined as: “… [A] visual representation for text data, typically used to depict keyword metadata (tags) on websites, or to visualize free form text. Tags are usually single words, and the importance of each tag is shown with font size or color.” You may have seen a word cloud in recent coverage about the presidential debates or on a blog, but businesses can use them as well to attract and inform customers.
I recently read an article, “6 Fun and Interesting Ways Businesses Can Use Word Clouds,” that had some great tips, including:
- Use your most popular corporate blog posts to develop a word cloud – This could show you what is most important for your readers and customers, but could also inform your priorities for next year’s planning or help you identify topics to address on the blog.
- Pull copy from your company’s website and/or marketing materials to create a word cloud – Use it as your company’s Facebook cover photo or Twitter header image.
- Conduct a survey of your customers and develop a word cloud from the responses – Share results by posting the image on your website or via social media. You could even identify word clouds based on positive feedback and constructive criticism to highlight the company’s strengths and areas for growth.
In addition to the tips above, consider other options for using a word cloud:
- Poll your employees about their perceptions on company culture, performance, etc. – Share the results internally on an Intranet or company-wide email and communicate about plans to improve, evolve or continue employee programs.
- Create a word cloud from your company’s vision and mission statements – Display it in the office to communicate them to guests in a fun and visual way.
- Generate a word cloud from your customer list – For customers who have agreed to be named publicly, include the word cloud on your website and other marketing materials to show your customer roster in an interesting way.
Free word cloud tools are available from Wordle and Tagxedo. What creative ways have you used word clouds?
The chatter in social media outlets in the final days before the national presidential election will likely reach exceptional levels as digital and traditional national pundits try to predict the outcome. Feeding the banter is Twitter’s Twindex which tracks numbers of followers for each candidate, and Facebook’s Election Insights, which tracks how many people are talking about each candidate on the social media platform. To me, attempting to predict the next president by the conversation on Twitter and Facebook is about as effective as my local bar attempting to predict the outcome based upon how many customers order an Obamatini versus a Romneytini. It is not what the tools were designed to do. However, there are plenty of lessons business can learn from the politicians and campaigns strategists who are using social media to gain influence and promote change.
Experts in politics, government and grassroots campaigns recently came together in Seattle to discuss how a culture of clicks, shares and likes are affecting the business of politics. The panel discussion, titled “Social Media and Democracy,” was produced by the MIT Enterprise Forum Northwest and showcased what businesses and marketing folks can learn from the political world’s social media triumphs and failures. Here are some key takeaways:
Social media has to be a conversation, not a monologue. Nathan Daschle, founder of Ruck.us and former chair of the Democratic Governor’s Association, lamented that the current presidential candidates are using Twitter and Facebook as a broadcast tool rather than a conversation tool. He observed that the campaigns are not utilizing the power that these tools offer to interact and engage with constituents around issues. As this AdAge infographic shows, each presidential candidate talks about himself in more than half of his social media posts instead of interacting with constituents. Many established consumer and business brands make the same mistake.
Stories need to be meaningful and compelling in order to promote change. According to Joe Mirabella director of campaigns for All Out, the key to gaining mass attention that fosters change is to create stories that are so compelling that they get to the part of our brains where we are motivated to act by liking, sharing and retweeting a meaningful story. When our emotions are stimulated we are inclined to join a cause, advocate for an issue, and be part of a movement that creates mass awareness on social media channels.
Social media offers a trusted intermediary for collaboration outside of traditional silos such as political parties and entrenched stakeholder groups. Washington state representative Deb Eddy says because of their ability to connect people outside of special interest groups, social media tools have enormous potential to change the decision-making process of those in power. As social media tools are better developed, Eddy says the potential grows for more people to engage with the process and decision makers to advocate for new laws or changes in established policies. A business could learn grassroots campaigns that utilize social media to galvanize support if, for example, it is introducing e a disruptive technology, entering a crowded market, or protecting the reputation of a brand.
As these tools evolve, government and business are both learning that the power of social media lies not in numbers alone, but by combining effective communication strategies such as storytelling, and dialogue with the ease of connecting and transparency that social media tools provide.
Throughout its years, Communiqué PR has developed strong relationships with industry analysts. With many of our clients, we recommend cultivating and growing a network of analyst advocates who can actively provide feedback on, or help validate their products and services. Analysts are a critical audience that has the ability to influence potential customers, offer third-party support to add credibility to news stories, and raise awareness around new product categories.
Recently, we’ve partnered with CENTRI, a leader in new wireless service technologies that increases network efficiency, performance and security through data intelligence and universal awareness across all networks for service providers and enterprise companies to engage the analyst audience. Developing and executing against a strategic analyst-relations program can be especially critical for startups such as CENTRI as they look to gain traction in their respective marketplace and increase their perceived value.
To date, we’ve secured six meetings with several top-tier analyst firms who are experts in the mobile industry. These firms include Gartner, Forrester, IDC, the Aberdeen Group, the Yankee Group and Frost and Sullivan. In preparation for these meetings, we also helped CENTRI develop a PowerPoint presentation with background on CENTRI as a company, a deep dive into its BitSmart solution and why its products and services are disruptive to the industry.
Thus far, the feedback has been phenomenal. Each analyst had great insight to share and smart questions around CENTRI’s solutions, how it works and how it can benefit the industry. More importantly, each analyst was interested in staying in close contact with CENTRI to stay apprised of its key milestones and touch base as the company officially brings its product to market. As a startup, it was important for CENTRI to determine whether its messages would resonate and whether it had a sound go-to-market strategy. Through these analyst briefings, the company was able to help validate its business and product solutions.
CENTRI is now poised to continue its momentum through media relations, product launches and by engaging in industry-wide events. Stay tuned as you can expect some exciting announcements from CENTRI in the coming months.
One of the major facets of public relations is crisis management. After all, although preventative measures are key, a variety of things can go awry that can negatively impact a company and its brand. Properly addressing errors is as important as preventing errors. One strategy frequently employed by a corporation is a public apology. However, as simple as it may seem, crafting a public apology that will be well received and accepted by the public is no easy feat.
Here are two examples of public apologies done right—and one done very, very wrong.
- Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, “Letter from Tim Cook on Maps,” September 28, 2012
In a relatively unprecedented move for Apple, Tim Cook openly apologized for the release of a faulty new Apple Maps app that did not remotely match its predecessor’s capabilities.
Tim’s letter exemplifies excellent crisis communication strategy. Tim begins by firmly stating the qualities underlying Apple’s brand (“we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers”) and distinguishing the Apple brand from its faulty Maps App. Tim reminds the reader that the App will continue to improve, and acknowledges feedback graciously and with gratitude.
What really sets this apology apart is Tim’s recommendation of other applications that can do the job better. Tim begins and ends by stating that Apple’s mission is to provide its customers the “best in the world”, and he follows up on that statement by showing customers how they can currently access the best possible experience.
- Matthew Thornton III, Senior VP of FedEx Express U.S. Operations, “FedEx Response to Customer Video,” December 21, 2011
This apology was issued as a response to a user-uploaded YouTube video, “FedEx Guy Throwing My Computer Monitor,” which was uploaded on December 19, 2011 and currently has more than 8 million views.
FedEx handled the situation perfectly; Its apology, like Tim Cook’s, distinguished the act displayed on the YouTube video from FedEx’s mission and values. Not only was this apology issued, but the customer was met with and personally apologized to. Matthew carefully positions the potentially negative situation by stating that the offending employee is no longer working with customers (he does not imply that the employee has been let go), and that the video is now used as a internal training tool to remind employees that every delivery is “precious cargo”.
The best take away from this apology is that in today’s media landscape, platform is essential. Because this apology was engineered as a response to the original YouTube video, anyone who clicked on the original link would see the response link immediately. This geared the apology to the public and to FedEx’s customers, rather than the media, making it more credible.
- Tony Hayward, then CEO of British Petroleum, “BP CEO Tony Hayward Issues an Apology for Remarks,” June 2, 2010
The British Petroleum oil spill of 2010 will live on in infamy as the catastrophe it was, and the mishandled corporate crisis communications that followed. At first, BP officially downplayed the spill, referring to it as relatively small (source). When BP did acknowledge the magnitude of the spill, then BP CEO, Tony Hayward, originally delivered a statement to journalists in May of 2010 stating: “We’re sorry for the massive disruption it’s caused to their lives. There’s no one who wants this over more than I do, I’d like my life back (source).” This apology reflected little remorse and created a public backlash.
In the midst of this poorly worded public apology, Tony issued an additional apology on BP’s Facebook for his original remarks. However, for many it was too little too late.
The lessons to be learned from BP are as follows:
- Don’t deny. It’s never a good decision to try and downplay something the public is in uproar about, especially if the issue is getting massive media coverage. It will not help your case.
- Address those impacted. In this case, that would have been those immediately affected by the spill. Complaining about being tired during the midst of a crisis will not get you any points with the public. It is not about you.
- Select your platform, and stick with it. BP gave public remarks, posted on Facebook, and then created a television ad addressing the issue. People looking for information on the catastrophe were not able to see a cohesive picture from BP as the company’s remarks were scattered in both content and in distribution.
These three examples exemplify how essential crisis communications planning and execution can be. A good PR strategy will take some of the heat off—a great one may help people regain faith in your brand. However, the most important part of any good apology, whether public or otherwise, is always authenticity.
For more on crisis communications from Communique PR, see:
Communique PR Blog >> Crisis Communications
For more on corporate apologies, see:
The Art of the Corporate Apology, Forbes
Best Corporate Apology Ever Posted on Twitter?, AdWeek
Apple’s Map Fail and More Corporate Apologies, The Daily Beast
Tim Cook Apologizes for Apple’s Maps, the New York Times: Bits
Mobile is one of the hottest tech topics right now. From security to access to culture, mobile is changing the way people work. With the popularity of smartphones, tablets and laptops, more and more organizations are transforming into virtual environments where employees are working remotely to cut down on commuting and overhead business costs. In fact, IDC predicts mobile workers will increase worldwide to more than one-third of the global workforce. But with an increase of virtual offices and workers spread across the globe, what is the impact on communication? By communicating predominately electronically, can messages get lost in translation?
I came across an interesting article in Ragan Communications’ that looks at the pros and cons of working virtually, including a lack of personal connection and shared experience usually forged in the workplace, but also the benefits of increased productivity, no interruptions and eliminated office drama such as, “who took the last Diet Coke?”
In the article, Gini Dietrich writes about her organization’s decision to get rid of an office and go virtual. I’ve outlined a few tips to consider based on her observations and my experience working with clients and coworkers remotely.
- Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. When you are not physically in an office, it is important to communicate as much as possible. Make sure to check in regularly with your manager via email, instant message, video chat and/or phone. This will help to alleviate any potential concerns that you are not online or working.
- Be very clear. Communicating electronically means that you miss out on sarcasm, body language and nuances, like whether the person is just having a bad day. Mobile workers need to be very careful that they are clear in their communication and avoid projecting any irritability in electronic messages because the receiver can’t pick up on body language or tone and could take it the wrong way.
- Be aware of time zones. At Communiqué PR, we work with clients, media and analysts from all over the world, which can make scheduling a call challenging! It is important to keep in mind that just because you might work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT, your coworker or client might be on a different schedule, so be sure to provide a time zone in your deadline requests.
- Connect on the phone. Though it might not be ideal, connecting on the phone is a better way to have hard conversations than electronically. This will give you more cues to how someone is feeling based on voice inflection.
- Include context. Physical conversations are often more memorable than an email that someone may or may not have read all the way through. If you reference a conversation, you know that the other person participated, but if you reference an email, it can be more challenging to recall, especially when most people receive hundreds of emails a day. Be sure to include context in your email correspondence or include previous threads for easy reference.
- Create a culture. Even virtual organizations have some in-person time. In a Workplace article, “Cultivating a Virtual Culture,” the author Michelle Rafter writes about the near virtual marketing company Emma Inc., and how once a year all the employees get together for an annual talent show. This is unique to the Emma culture and even though the employees are not physically connected on a daily basis, they have an opportunity to connect annually face-to-face in a way that embodies the company’s values.
As more and more employees work remotely, tailoring communication styles for the virtual workplace is important. Employees and employers will need to find water cooler conversation replacements in the virtual world to forge more personal connections.
How do you communicate with remote employees or clients? Do you have any tips on best practices or key learnings?